The present invention relates to a board to board connector, and particularly to a board to board connector which provides a plurality of improved conductive contacts.
Board to board electrical connectors have been widely used and, referring to FIG. 4, a conventional board to board connector 5 comprises an insulative housing 10 defining a plurality of channels 102 (only two shown), and a plurality of conductive contacts 12 (only two shown) received in respective channels 102. Each contact 12 comprises an arced resilient portion 13 retained in a respective channel 102, an arm 14 extending upward from an upper end of the resilient portion 13, and a mounting portion 16 horizontally extending from a lower end of the resilient portion 13. The mounting portion 16 has barbs (not shown) fixedly engaging with the housing 10. A tail portion 17 is horizontally and outwardly extending from the mounting portion 16 and located below the mounting portion 16. The tail portion 17 is used for soldering to a respective pad on a lower PC board (not shown) by Surface Mounting Technology (SMT). The arm 14 forms an arced engaging portion 15 at its upper free end for contacting a respective pad on an upper PC board (not shown). When the conventional connector 5 connects the two PC boards, a downward pressing force on the engaging portion 15 is wholly exerted to the resilient portion 13, causing a great stress concentration at such place. Therefore, after a period of use, the resilient portion 13 becomes fatigue, resulting in an insufficient force for the engaging portion 15 to reliably electrically connect with the upper board. Furthermore, as the connector 5 lacks any structure which can effectively retained the tail portion 17, the tail portion 17 may leave its desired horizontal orientation, resulting in poor quality regarding soldering the tail portion to the lower PC board by SMT. Finally, the signal transmitting path from the engaging portion 15 to the solder tail 17 is relatively long, which is unfavorable in view of high frequency transmission since the resistance and inductance are proportional to the length of the signal travel path.
Hence, a board to board connector with improved conductive contacts is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.